The Magician

 The Magician is a historical novel about the life of the German author, Thomas Mann. He is called the magician by his six children because he entertains them with tricks at the dinner table. Other than doing magic tricks he leaves the rest of the parenting work to his wife. He ends up supporting his children financially well into their adult lives.  The author is Colm Toibin and he starts off when Thomas is 7 years old, living in Lubeck, Germany with his conservative father and his Brazilian mother. Thomas has an older brother, two younger sisters, and a little brother. He hides his homosexuality from his family. His older brother is a writer and that is what Thomas wants to do too. His parents insist he work for an accountant. Thomas purposely fails at the copying job he is given so that he will be fired and he can pursue his passion. Thomas Mann was a very successful author who went on to win the Nobel Prize in literature. He became interested in a Jewish family who befriended him. He eventually married Katia, one of the twins in that family. They have six children together. Eventually they have to flee Germany before World War Two. They move to Switzerland and eventually New Jersey before setting in California for many years. Mann was criticized for not speaking out against Hitler. He worried that if he did denounce Hitler, he would put his wife's family at risk and that Hitler would ban his books and take action against his publisher. This was an interesting story about a man who lived in very interesting times.